Judy Blume has a lesson to teach in 'Blubber,' which could be the kiss of death in a children's book. Teaching a lesson often transmogrifies into an adult talking down.

But this novel about bullying is saved by Blume's attention to reality. While the bully--Wendy, one of the few characters here without much depth--gets a kind of comeuppance, Blume offers no pat solutions. Jill, her protagonist, is just as guilty of nasty behavior as Wendy is.

Jill's clueless fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Minnish, and her oblivious principal, offer no guidance, much less help for Linda, the chubby girl (thus the nickname, 'Blubber') who suffers through her classmates' torture. Linda, however, turns out to be flawed, too.

If it all sounds grim, remember it's Judy Blume, so there are any number of chuckle-inducing moments. These kids are real middle-schoolers, with all the virtues and neuroses (Jill eats only peanut-butter sandwiches) of that age.

They're trying to figure out why they have to show their work when they get the right answers to math questions, where the boundaries are, and how to be popular. Blume makes those things funny, without diminishing their seriousness and complexity.